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Will Ramdas Athavale’s RPI play spoilsport in polls?

The Republican Party of India led by Ramdas Athavale has taken the centre stage in state politics — a worrying sign for the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine.

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The Republican Party of India led by Ramdas Athavale has taken the centre stage in state politics — a worrying sign for the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine.

The combine reckons that even if the small dalit pockets dotted in every constituency shift loyalties to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, it will upset the poll mathematics of Congress-NCP.
Athavale has already declared his mission is to drive deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar out of home turf Pune. The battle is now against Congress and NCP, he asserted.

An in-house study conducted by Congress and NCP indicated the RPI will play a significant role in damaging the electoral prospects of Congress and NCP in parts of western Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Mumbai.

The elections for 27 zilla parishads, 196 municipal councils, 310 panchayats and 14 municipal corporations in the state will take place between December and February.

In Vidarbha, dominant dalit leaders, such as Yogendra Kawade and Prakash Ambedkar, have always worked against the Congress. The RPI factor will further consolidate the anti-Congress platform.

But western Maharashtra,  for the first time, faces the wrath of Athavale’s party. RPI’s decision to enter into alliance with Sena-BJP to teach Congress and NCP a lesson has upset the ruling parties calculations as 10.5% dalits vote bank was always taken for granted. Athavale, who is most popular dalit leaders in Maharashtra, wields clout among 6% of this 10.5% vote bank.
NCP president Sharad Pawar has urged the state unit leaders to counter RPI by winning the trust of local dalit leaders in their respective districts, but the party has not made much headway in the last six months to win the support of influential local dalit players.

The Congress is banking on its old guard MP Eknath Gaikwad and former minister Chandrakant Handore to arrest the drift of dalits from Congress in Mumbai.

The Congress plans to whip up the issues of renaming Dadar station Dr BR Ambedkar and redevelopment of Chaityabhoomi to strike an emotive chord with dalits.

Dalit writer Arjun Dangle said: “The generation next of dalits believe in pragmatic politics. They are not going to fall prey to such emotive gimmicks which Congress has played for 40 years. A dalit youth is wants to know what Congress can offer for their emancipation.”

Even political managers in Congress admit that in local bodies elections even a vote bank between 500 to 5,000 can make a huge impact.

Dalit political observer Tushar Jagtap said: “The RPI factor cannot be undermined as it has presence in every constituency. Unless effectively countered, the RPI factor in Sena-BJP alliance can alter the face of politics."

In the last elections, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had split the Marathi votes helping to enhance the Congress results.
Now, it is feared that dalit voters can help negate the MNS factor as Marathi voters remain the common factor for both MNS and RPI.

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